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> We need these roots. You might. I need friends and family, some community participation is nice, sure, but I don't particularly feel the need for gods, ancie

• kewrkewm53 6y ago
  I think that in the long run wider societies need some shared belief system / culture / ideas to function properly, just like all kinds of communities do in smaller scale. Essentially we are tribal animals, and nothing can really change that. Without a sense of common identity there's little solidarity, and without solidarity you'll eventually have conflict. Failed states with civil wars tend to be those which lack any kind of common identity and ideas, while more successful ones tend to have those.
• mrphoebs 6y ago
  The content seemed to be talking about the fundamental common operating system for societies, not individuals. Individuals might have varying needs but as long as their needs align well with a superset of a culture's fundamental tenets the society would be relatively harmonious, or at least that's the way I see the author approaching the subject. I don't think these fundamental tenets need to have a theological basis for them, but as humans an overwhelmingly large part of our history as a people tribes, kingdoms and societies have been grounded by a shared belief in a common higher power. (I'm an atheist btw) >This just seems like unnecessary hyperbole This refutation seems to be as vague and unfounded as the thing it's refuting and doesn't provide much value. It would be beneficial to everyone reading if you can elucidate.
  • Nursie 6y ago
    It’a a bland assertion and hyperbolic. I’m not sure there’s more to be said.
    • mrphoebs 6y ago
      Sounds fair.
• totetsu 6y ago
  Well she was a christian mystic, with Jewish parents, so its bound to be tied up with that. If you get past that even as an atheist a lot of her writings are quite thought provoking. IIRC, using spiritual thinking as a flashlight to illuminate the unknown that is outside what can be understood by reason, or, that which is divided is also connected .. and maybe some stuff about friends and separation
  • UncleOxidant 6y ago
    As the article points out, she was a Christian but very critical of the dominant forms of Christianity: "Weil herself was Christian, but was scathing about official forms of the faith which had, she said, in most cases lined themselves up with ‘the interests of those who exploit the people.’"
  • vixen99 6y ago
    Weil went to a lot of trouble to avoid this kind of categorization (for which we all know the popular term these days) and is uninformative with respect to her work. She wrote a letter to the Vichy Minister of Education in 1940, What is a Jew?. She writes 'I myself, who profess no religion and never have, have certainly inherited nothing from the Jewish religion, Mine is the Christian, French, Greek tradition. The Hebraic tradition is alien to me and no statute can make it otherwise.'
• aphextron 6y ago
  >I don't particularly feel the need for gods, ancient traditions or worship You do. It's just that in modern society we've substituted these for more easily digestible, commodified, manufactured replicas. Hollywood celebrities have replaced the pantheon of Greek gods. Consumerism is the new piety. Techno Utopianism and liberalism (in the classical sense) has supplanted the ancient traditions of old. The Zuckerbergs and Musks of the world are our priestly class. We still need these things, but instead of searching for them, communing with others, and engaging with our inherited body of three thousand years of western cultural heritage to find meaning, we purchase it with the press of a button on an app.
  • UncleOxidant 6y ago
    Don't forget politics. As traditional religion has retreated Politics has taken on a greater role - politics as tribal identity. Good article here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/04/america-politics-religion/618072/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/04/america... "The notion that all deeply felt conviction is sublimated religion is not new. Abraham Kuyper, a theologian who served as the prime minister of the Netherlands at the dawn of the 20th century, when the nation was in the early throes of secularization, argued that all strongly held ideologies were effectively faith-based, and that no human being could survive long without some ultimate loyalty. If that loyalty didn’t derive from traditional religion, it would find expression through secular commitments, such as nationalism, socialism, or liberalism. The political theorist Samuel Goldman calls this “the law of the conservation of religion”: In any given society, there is a relatively constant and finite supply of religious conviction. What varies is how and where it is expressed."
  • Nursie 6y ago
    I don’t worship celebs either, nor Musks nor Zucks. So I say again, you may need these things, I don’t.
• ceilingcorner 6y ago
  When your country falls apart because there is no longer a shared narrative, language, or worldview holding it together, yes, it will affect you.
• slibhb 6y ago
  Are you sure you know what you need? I rarely am. I'm also not sure that Simone Weil is right but I'm a little scared she might be.